That’s pretty hardcore for someone who once rode a giant seahorse. In short, they basically ended up killing each other’s fathers which led to them becoming lifelong enemies fueled by mutual vengeance. Arthur later sought vengeance and attacked a boat he suspected Black Manta was on, but accidentally killed his father instead. In this origin, Black Manta was a mercenary tasked by a scientist to obtain a sample of young Arthur Curry’s blood to determine if he truly was an Atlantean.ĭuring his attempt to gather the sample, Arthur’s foster father, Thomas, intervened to protect his son, but ultimately died of a heart attack. The most recent Black Manta origin story (and probably the most important one to know) is the New 52 version that’s closest to the Aquaman film’s Black Manta. There he was subjected to experimental treatments meant to cure him that backfired and ended up making him extremely violent, eventually paving the way to him becoming the Black Manta. There was a completely different origin created years later where he was revealed to be a troubled autistic child who grew up in Gotham and was admitted to Arkham Asylum. It’s not unusual for characters to have many different backstories over the years, and Black Manta has quite a few. Well, kinda… While this technically was the very first origin story for him, it certainly wasn’t the only one, or even the most well-known one. From that point forward, Black Manta was born. Manta eventually ended up saving himself by killing off his captors, but even with his successful escape, he harbored an undying grudge for the King of the Seven Seas who he believed left him for dead. He signaled him for rescue, but Aquaman was entirely oblivious to his desperate pleas for help and was unable to save him. While forced to submit to horrendous forms of abuse by his captors, he caught a glimpse of Aquaman in the ocean swimming alongside dolphins. While playing outside by the ocean one day, he was kidnapped by pirates and became a slave serving them on their ship. In this, Black Manta, whose real name still wasn’t known, was shown as a young child born in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. Yet even after this, nobody knew anything more about him other than the damage he was capable of inflicting on Aquaman, the worst of which was undoubtedly the murder of Aquaman’s infant son, Arthur Curry, Jr.īut that changed in 1992, when Black Manta was given his first legitimate origin story in Aquaman #6, which also turned out to be one of the darkest iterations of his character. It wasn’t until ten years after his introduction that he even unmasked himself for the first time, revealing to Aquaman that he was African American. He was a very mysterious character acting upon unknown motives with the sole purpose of taking out Arthur Curry. For quite a few decades following his introduction to the DC Universe, almost no backstory was provided for him. Don’t me, you know it’s true.īut even if you already know that he’s a ruthless underwater pirate and mercenary, there’s a lot that you still don’t know (quick, what’s Black Manta’s real name?!?) and with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom primed to make a splash in a few weeks at DC FanDome, it’s about time you get up to speed on Aquaman’s greatest and most menacing underwater foe.īlack Manta was created by writer Bob Haney and artist Nick Cardy in 1967 and made his first appearance in Aquaman #35. He’s without a doubt one of the best and most iconic super-villains to ever exist. Let’s be real, we all know who Black Manta is.

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